The Alpha Seer understanding true art

Ben Lau THE PAINTERLY METAPHOR

Music, poetry, and painting are linked by the fact that the artistic genius is creating his metaphors by different means. By means of sound, you have music. The composer creates his musical metaphor. By means of words you have poetry, the poet creates his poetic metaphor. And by means of light you have the painterly metaphor, created by the artistic genius! The painterly metaphor is created with black and white, the painterly metaphor is also created with lines and shapes. Color in painting are of course, useful, but they have only a small role to play in the creation of this painterly metaphor. Art without a metaphor is like a boat without a rudder. There is no fun in a painting without a metaphor. Look at the so-called abstract art, which emphasizes nothing but color. It is not saying anything. It is the most boring thing in the world. In a week you will grow tired of it. I guarantee that! Listen to the piano with undifferentiated sound, or sounds that suggests rhythms only, or just some sentimental tunes. You can become so bored that you will run for the door with your ears closed right away!

So Cezanne’s metaphors are found in his sceneries and still-lives, Knox Martin adopts the human face, while I opt for the Satyr and Nymph series, i.e., the legendary/ mythological sex- act. In the sex-act, two intertwined bodies provide a rich variety of shapes and lines. The possibilities in making metaphors in art through this view of the sex-act are inexhaustible. That’s why I seldom depart from such an extremely useful genre. The metaphor and the subject matter may be closely related but they are not the same. The metaphor is the soul of the work. An illustration is one in which the so-called artist is unable to find his soul. It is just a matter of imitation, an image of mediocre doodling. The fact of the matter is, only a genius can give a clear-cut metaphor, i.e. only a genius may allow his soul to show through! Mozart is a musical genius,  Shakespeare, a literary one. Is Cezanne an artistic genius? You bet!

Is Dali an artistic genius? No! Andy Warhol? No! Are the folk singers musical genius? No!  Pop singers? No! Is Walt Whitman a literary genius? No! Frida Kahlo? Norman Rockwell? Damien Hirst? Francis Bacon,…..? For Christ’s sake, No!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are called impostors, or pretenders. It is not easy for the laymen to tell art apart from non-art–and because it takes another genius to tell you what a true metaphor is, who is a bona-fide and who is not, we end up with many pretenders– since it is easy money for the conmen.

The general public have mistaken deKooning’s works as abstract expressionism. It takes an artistic  genius like Knox Martin to educate us, to tell art apart from non-art, and to correct the misconception of the laymen! The general perception of deKooning’s work is so mistaken! If you look really carefully, stare at deKooning’s work for a while, trying to see what he is presenting to the artistic appetite, you will find deKooning’s metaphor of the nude staring back at you. What a surprise, since there is nothing abstract about deKooning’s works! Wilhem deKooning’s work has a soul. He uses the nude to express his metaphor. That metaphor is the soul of deKooning’s work.
Knox Martin even goes so far as to proclaim: THE SUBJECT MATTER OF ART IS ART ITSELF! I wonder how many people would understand the meaning of this statement? It sounds like an enigma, but for the real artistic genius, it is easy to decode. It simply means that the true artist does not need a subject matter, already he has art as his subject matter! When you look at my work, you are probably thinking, OK, Ben Lau’s subject matter is the sex act and we shall therefore classify Ben’s works as erotica. But that is so wrong! Art is Ben Lau’s real subject matter, nothing else is! The sex act is NOT! The sex act is just an excuse, a convenient tool for Ben Lau to express his artistic metaphor! Do not focus on the narrative of a real painting. Focus instead on the metaphor–which is a gorgeous symphony of lines and shapes, the interactions of singular or multiple visual metaphors, the visualization of which made possible through the agile placement of the black and white! Real art of our times is derived from the greatest genius of all times, Titian. He invented painting by first and foremost, asking the question: WHAT ARE THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF OUR UNIVERSE?

The answer provided by the Alpha Seer is: YIN and YANG. Upon further examination, Yin and Yang is manifested through black and white in the art of drawing, and male and female in the realm of living being. So the sex act is not just a metaphor for Yin and Yang interactions, it is also one for the interactions in drawing, in the art of making shapes, therefore a metaphor for art itself. Next time you visit a museum, remember you are looking for metaphors. When equipped with your own intuition, you must believe in yourself. The museum curators and directors have it all wrong. They do not know sh*t about art. And I want to hear from you expressing your ultimate displeasure at those impostors and art illiterates with, “DANG, YOU GUYS CAN NO LONGER FOOL ME!!!!!!!!!”  And say it loud, by way of thanking the Alpha Seer!